Yay … a marshmellow that tastes like gum!”

– Logan, 6th grade, tasting a circus peanut

I just read a March post by Isaac that challenges the effectiveness of and reasoning behind Christian boycotts:

There’s a shop down the street from my house owned by a family that emigrated from India. From my experiences and conversations with them, I have discovered that they are devoutly Hindu. I know for a fact that a portion of the profits from the operations of their store go to support the worship of a false god at their temple. What is the more effective message…if I say, “Well, you are donating your money to a cause to which I object, so I am boycotting your store until you act the way I do.” or if I show the love of Christ through my words, life and actions, and work to change change the root of the problem, not just fight the effects of them?

How true. While I would definitely argue that Christians have an obligation to participate in the democratic dialogue in our country (which includes boycotts and public stunts), I think that we often do so with angry attitudes and bitter hearts. Not only is this ineffective (by sendng a decidedly “non-christian” message) … but it also simply hurts people and maligns the name of Christ.

I’m guilty of this type of thinking on a personal level quite often … not necessarily with product or company boycotts, but with my approach to immorality and opposing viewpoints in general. I speak coercive and condescending words and send classist and exclusionary messages by my choices. Guilty as charged.

Apple really needs to ditch the tabbed menus and aqua interface at the top of its website. They were introduced in February of 2000 (before OS X) and are way out-of-date. Yuck.

Lead of Love
by Caedmon’s Call

Looking back at the road so far
The journey’s left its share of scars
Mostly from leaving the narrow and straight

Looking back it is clear to me
That a man is more than the sum of his deeds
And how you’ve made good of this mess I’ve made
Is a profound mystery

Looking back you know you had to bring me through
All that I was so afraid of
Though I questioned the sky, now I see why
I had to walk the rocks to see the mountain view
Looking back I see the lead of love

Looking back I can finally see (I’d rather have wisdom)
How failures bring humility (than be)
Brings me to my knees (a comfortable fool)
Helps me see my need for thee

I’ve never really been a big Sarah McLachlan fan. Until now.

[via Kim]

On Christmas Eve, 2005, Matt Wicker and I were travelling home from a Caribbean cruise. We had a few hours to kill before our plane took off from Ft. Lauderdale, so we checked our bags and took off for a local beach to enjoy the waves!

When I am confronted with a major creative process, it often takes me quite a bit of time to get going. Somehow, I have a calm understanding that this is just the way it works … I cannot force deadlines on myself or contrive results. Eventually, details will start falling into place … new material will surface, technical bugs will get worked out, big-picture conceptualization will materialize, and I’ll build up enough reserve energy, enthusiasm, ideas, adrenaline and motivation to tackle the job. Until that moment, however, I understand that the best thing I can do is to do nothing, to frequently revisit the project but actually do nothing productive.

Strangely, though, I never try to explain this to anyone. Instead, I write this off as mere “procrastination”. I give regular updates about how it’s going [nowhere], toss in a few “shoulds” and “coulds”, and generally paint myself in a negative light. I’m not sure why … but I do. Perhaps it’s a faux humility thing or a lack of trust … I simply don’t think other people will understand.

But today I randomly ran across an article at Gagetopia called Are you procrastinating? Or are you just thinking? In it, Deane discusses the fact that creative projects have a stage where necessary thinking needs to occur:

It’s almost like every app has a gestation period. I know from having three kids that my wife got pretty sick of the whole pregnancy thing about four months into each of them. But, obviously, that baby needs to stay in there until it’s done. Likewise, even if you’re flat sure you know how to program that app, maybe sleep on it. Let it gestate a little more before throwing down any code.

I heartily agree. I’m think I’m going to try to minimize my rationalizations and stop calling it “procrastinaton”. Instead, I’ll just say that I’ve gathered and organized the raw material and now it’s on the back burner stewing. And there’s nothing wrong with that!

On June 1st, my address will change (from Shawnee Lane) to:

My phone number will stay the same until the end of July. At that point, I’ll post my new contact information in China. My email and web addresses will obviously stay the same throughout. Thanks!

Here’s the schedule for this last week of school:

• Friday: non-uniform day, morning chapel
• Monday: no school; out at PVM staff retreat
• Tuesday: games in all my classes; advisory pool party after school
• Wednesday: games in all my classes; faculty/student basketball game after school
• Thursday: field day and class parties
• Friday: half day; morning chapel and early release

Do you notice anything interesting about the FedEx logo?

My sister, Ronda, just moved to Germany a week ago with her family for a year-long adventure. Ross, her husband, will be studying theology and writing a book at a major Germany university while the family learns about living in a new and interesting culture.

Ronda has been homeschooling her four beautiful children for many years now … there are some specific needs that she’s able to meet inside the home, and she’s just a wonderful educator. But now their plan has hit a major bump in the road. Homeschooling, you see, is illegal in Germany … and it appears that the authorities are asking their family to conform to German regulations. Here’s an excerpt from an email that she just sent to me:

[Name Removed] from the office in [city removed] where we applied for our visa yesterday called today to say that we must put our children in German school. She would like us to meet her Friday morning, bringing an interpreter since she doesn’t speak German, to sort this out.

I have wanted to come home many times already this first 6 days, and now I feel so utterly defeated and angry. Please pray for us. This is more than we know how to handle, especially with no language skills.

The language barrier obviously makes it difficult for her children as well, who are brilliant but would still have an obviously hard time in the German educational system. Furthermore, from what I’ve read, there are many New Age and explicit things that are being taught in the German schools … and it’s pretty easy to see why my sister would prefer to continue homeschooling her children.

Please pray … they’re fighters, but that’s much harder to do in a foreign land!

A school district near Chicago has just decided to start monitoring student blogs to find illegal and inappropriate materal. If a student is found owning or participating in such a site, his right to participate in extracurricular activities (like sports or fine arts) may be revoked.

Some have responded and said that this violates the civil rights of students. Community High School District 128 Associate Superintendent Prentiss Lea, however, has a different view:

“The concept that searching a blog site is an invasion of privacy is almost an oxymoron,” he said. “It is called the World Wide Web.”

Others, like Alex Koroknay-Palicz of the National Youth Rights Association, think that it demonstrates fear of youth culture:

“Just like they were scared of Elvis with his hip thrusts, they’re scared of rock music, they’re scared of punk music,” he said. “They’re scared of anything new that comes along that young people embrace.”

Personally, I monitor student blogs all the time … not necessarily as an authority figure, but as a friend and mentor. I want to encourage my kiddos’ use of online publishing and help them to make good decisions on the Internet … and what better way to do it than to spend time being there with them? From what I’ve found, however, most adults choose to do the opposite. They avoid engaging with the online world of their kids (for various lame reasons). And, as a result, our children are left alone a vast, unmonitored, and unfenced playground.

It’s great to see school systems that care about the whole child and are willing to go out of their way to ensure their safety both in and out of school. I think you’re going to see many such stories in the next year … and, as Lea claims, it will only increase the dialogue about a very misunderstood part of our culture:

“By adding the blog sites (to the student codes of conduct), we wanted to raise discussions on the issue,” he said. “We have taken the first steps to starting that conversation.”

Bravo.

So I’m in the middle of the biggest video project of the year (and the last one, at that) … and the optical drive of the PowerMac I’m working on died. Three months out of warranty.

Just looking at this girl’s deep eyes and knowing smile makes me feel like we are privy to a fantastic secret.

Recent posts at several blogs (Girltalk, A Puritan’s Hope, Al Mohler & Josh Harris) have been talking about modesty at weddings … specifically with bridal gowns. I’m not too interested in that topic, but it has also started to spawn a conversation about modesty in general with teen girls. At Trying to be Mary, cwu talks candidly about her experiences as one of the only modestly dressed girls at her prom. Avoiding Evil has some great thoughts and ideas about the difficulty of directing young girls in a youth group setting, and Girltalk even has an entire category of posts about modesty. Yep … it’s that time of year when the temperature rises and the amount of visible skin follows suit!

[Modest is Hottest, by webel]

As a middle school teacher and summer camp guy, I deal with this situation all the time. From what I’ve heard, it can be very difficult for young ladies (especially at growing ages) to find modest clothes … clothing manufacturers follow the trends pretty closely (and sadly, sex sells). Moreover, our culture is obsessed with pleasing our children and “making them happy” … so many parents choose to let their children set the standards in their homes to avoid the “failure” of displeasing their child. I used to be frustrated by these situations until I learned three practical ways to deal with them. Of course, these ideas won’t solve every situation (especially with immature and stubborn girls), but they go a long way toward reaching a solution and facilitating learning in our young ladies.

First, we need to set some boundaries in the arenas that we control. If low-cut blouses or short skirts are not acceptable, we should make an actual rule about wearing them during our functions or at our facilities. This may sound obvious, but I’ve found that many groups and organizations don’t officially state anything about modesty (or language, bullying, and a host of other social issues) … they just have an “unspoken” expectation of their kids. This is unfair, especially to those who come from households with different value systems and wardrobes. We don’t have to make a big deal about introducing the new rule … we can just simply publish it and start enforcing it lovingly (and with a touch of grace).

I, for instance, have a rule that young ladies may not wear two-piece swimsuits at my events. It’s always published in the communication about the event (well, except for once this year!), and any girl that shows up without a one-piece must simply swim with a dark tshirt over it (or decide not to swim). In track and cross country, I have a few extra shorts and tshirts for runners who either forget their clothes or bring clothes that are too skimpy … if they’re not prepared for practice with appropriate clothes, they have to wear what I provide (and yes, I’ve chosen some ugly colors, so they learn quickly to bring modest clothes).

Second, and more importantly, we are in a unique position to help these young ladies understand modesty … but it has to come from a position of love. If a girl doesn’t first understand that you truly care about her, she’s going to take your feedback as criticism and will either become hurt or angry (or both). Once you’ve established some trust, however, she’s much more likely to understand what you mean and take ownership of her decisions. I know how tough it is to establish this groundwork (especially for a single guy like me), but if you’re honest and consistent and take time to listen, it will happen. Forget blaming the parents … if the girl decides that she doesn’t want to wear revealing clothes then her parents will surely support her (and if not, then the girl can teach the parents!).

Finally, if this is a big issue in your particular group, perhaps separating the boys and girls and having heart-to-heart talks about modesty and respect would be very effective. We have a separated “girl talk” and “guy talk” at the beginning of our cross country and track seasons (both teams are co-ed), and it’s a good chance to set clear expectations and also show the young men and women why this is a big deal. It’s essential to bring humor into these conversations … and if you’re a guy, I recommend bringing in a woman of integrity to build some Proverbs 31 into the girls. Sadly, this is a conversation that most adults avoid, leaving kids stranded and vulnerable to situations where they’ll be embarassingly confronted by teachers, youth leaders, or the parents of their friends.